Holy Crap - Van Gogh Didn't Cut His Ear Off - Gauguin Did!

[BlooInBloo]

According to these historians, at any rate.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/may/04/vincent-van-gogh-ear

"Vincent van Gogh's fame may owe as much to a legendary act of self-harm, as it does to his self-portraits. But, 119 years after his death, the tortured post-Impressionist's bloody ear is at the centre of a new controversy, after two historians suggested that the painter did not hack off his own lobe but was attacked by his friend, the French artist Paul Gauguin.

According to official versions, the disturbed Dutch painter cut off his ear with a razor after a row with Gauguin in 1888. Bleeding heavily, Van Gogh then walked to a brothel and presented the severed ear to an astonished prostitute called Rachel before going home to sleep in a blood-drenched bed.

But two German art historians, who have spent 10 years reviewing the police investigations, witness accounts and the artists' letters, argue that Gauguin, a fencing ace, most likely sliced off the ear with his sword during a fight, and the two artists agreed to hush up the truth.

In Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence, published in Germany, Hamburg-based academics Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans argue that the official version of events, based largely on Gauguin's accounts, contain inconsistencies and that both artists hinted that the truth was more complex."

[Dappleganger]

1. OH the drama! nt

[PufPuf23]

2. I have been obsessing on Vincent's ear

Thanks for clearing that up!!

Went to a great traveling Van Gogh exhibit at the De Young in SF back in the 70's.

[Forkboy]

3. Regardless, I still don't advise it as a way too impress a woman.

Nothing says stable like a box of ear.

[Bosso 63]

5. "Ear in a box" is not nearly as romantic as a . . . . . .

Oh never mind.

[BlooInBloo]

6. hahahahaah!!!!

[MADem]

7. Oh my...and it's not even Christmas! nt

[jobycom]

4. It's a conspiracy, man!

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. or was it Van Go-gan

[ContinentalOp]

9. That's strange that this is news. I remember reading about that theory years ago.

Sounds plausible to me but then I love me an alternate history conspiracy theory :)

[EFerrari]

10. They lived together for a while. Van Gogh was famously troubled

but in order to live with him, Gaugin had to be within range, if you know what I mean. It wouldn't surprise me at all.